Dick Morris Smears Hillary Clinton With U.N. Conspiracy Theories

Dick Morris used appearances on Fox News to attack Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over a U.S. commitment to help fund a United Nations initiative on sustainable energy in the developing world.In contrast to Morris' fearmongering, private-sector interests have pledged far more money to the initiative than the U.S. has.

Morris: Hillary Clinton Is Giving Tax Dollars To Third World Dictators

Morris: Hillary Clinton "Opened The Door To A New Global EPA." From Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

MORRIS: While I got you, Laura, my old friend Hillary was in Rio this last week at the global climate conference. And we predict this in Screwed, our book. She gave them a $2billion hostess present towards a $100 billion fund for climate change to help Third World countries and, in the course of it, opened the door to a new global EPA. While we're talking about American politics, this administration is giving this country away in its sovereignty at these global conferences.

Morris: Clinton "Gave Away $2 Billion Of Our Money To A Fund To Be Turned Over To Third World Dictators." From Fox News' Hannity:

MORRIS: I want to just note something that we predicted in our book Screwed came to pass last week. Hillary went to the Rio conference, the conference on climate change, and gave away $2 billion of our money to a fund to be turned over to the Third World dictators, allegedly to help them deal with climate change.

SEAN HANNITY (host): How much?

MORRIS: Two billion. And that's the down payment on a $100 billion fund that we are currently negotiating with them.

HANNITY: A hundred billion of U.S. tax dollars?

MORRIS: Well, worldwide, but we would be about a third of it. And this is happening right before our noses, and there isn't a peep out of it. Nobody in Congress even spoke about this. [Fox News, Hannity, 6/25/12]

U.N. Program Was Set Up So Governments, Companies, NGOs Can Support Clean Energy

U.N.: Sustainable Energy For All Designed To Increase Energy Access And Efficiency And To Spread Renewables. From the U.N.'s Sustainable Energy For All website:

The Sustainable Energy for All initiative brings together governments, businesses and civil society groups in an unprecedented effort to transform the world's energy systems by 2030. The Secretary-General has set three complimentary objectives for the initiative, all to be achieved by 2030: ensure universal access to modern energy services; double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency; and double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix. [Sustainableenergyforall.org, accessed 6/26/12]

U.S. Taxpayer Contribution Is Dwarfed By Private-Sector Contributions

Chicago Tribune: Private Investors Have Pledged $50 Billion To Help Carry Out The Program's Goals. From a Chicago Tribune article:

The commitments from the private sector totaled over $50 billion, according to the U.N.

French utility company GDF Suez, for example, said it will invest in 50 local energy projects in developing countries by 2020 and boost its own installed capacity in renewable energy by 50 percent from 2009-2015.

Italian utility Eni said it has earmarked $5 billion to reduce its carbon intensity and spend $32 million in the Democratic Republic of Congo to capture gas from oil flaring.

Software giant Microsoft submitted its plan to become carbon neutral and implement an internal carbon fee across its business operations in over 100 countries.

Analysts at HSBC said in a report Thursday that while government negotiators at the Rio+20 summit are "haggling over a dwindling pool of traditional aid," the private sector is focused on the need to scale up "trillions of investment dollars" per year for clean and accessible energy. [Chicago Tribune, 6/21/12]

United Nations officials will detail today pledges worth billions of dollars to curb the use of fossil fuels, conserve water and encourage wider use of renewable energy, part of a global effort to promote economic growth that doesn't strain the planet's resources.

The pledges include at least $2 billion from the U.S. and projects from PepsiCo Inc. (PEP) (PEP) and billionaire Richard Branson's Carbon War Room group. The UN counts at least 517 commitments from companies, organizations and nations, and will put a value on them at a briefing today in Rio de Janeiro, according to Pragati Pascale, a spokeswoman for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development.

[...]

Bank of America's [Chairman Chad] Holliday said he supports Ghana, which has a program to boost renewable energy use by 2020, and the UN's Sustainable Energy for All program. That program has attracted $50 billion in commitments from businesses including Norway's state oil company Statoil ASA (STL), to pursue objectives such as curtailing natural gas flaring in Africa. [Bloomberg Businessweek, 6/22/12]

Morris Cites U.N. Negotiations On Internet Governance Without Mentioning U.S. Has Vowed To Block Restrictions

Morris: "There's A Conference Going On Right Now To Turn Jurisdiction Over The Internet Over To The U.N." From The O'Reilly Factor:

MORRIS: And for example, there's a conference going on right now to turn the jurisdictionover the Internet over to the U.N., a Chinese motion.

INGRAHAM: Again, great topics for the Romney campaign. This is a great -- those are great topics for him to address, and I hope he does, and I think people will be happy to hear from it.

ABC News: The U.S. Delegation "Has Vowed To Block Any Proposals" That They Believe "Give Tacit Approval To Online Censorship." From ABC News:

Secret negotiations among dozens of countries preparing for a United Nations summit could lead to changes in a global treaty that would diminish the Internet's role in economic growth and restrict the free flow of information.

The U.S. delegation to the World Conference on International Telecommunications to be held in Dubai in December has vowed to block any proposals from Russia and other countries that they believe threaten the Internet's current governing structure or give tacit approval to online censorship.

But those assurances have failed to ease fears that bureaucratic tinkering with the treaty could damage the world's most powerful engine for exchanging information, creating jobs and even launching revolutions, according to legal experts and civil liberties advocates who have been tracking the discussions. Social networks played a key role in the Arab Spring uprisings that last year upended regimes in Egypt and Tunisia. [ABC News, 6/22/12]

State Department Official: "The United States Consistently Opposes The Extension Of Intergovernmental Controls Over The Internet." From AFP:

At a congressional hearing, the comments were united in opposition to place the Internet under the jurisdiction of the International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency which governs telecom systems.

"There's a strong, bipartisan consensus within the (US) administration and Congress that we must resist efforts from some countries to impose a top-down governance of the Internet," Representative Henry Waxman told the hearing.

Congresswoman Doris Matsui added that "any international authority over the Internet is troublesome, particularly if that effort is being led by countries where censorship is the norm."

A top State Department official, in prepared remarks, reaffirmed the opposition of the Obama administration to UN governance of the Internet.

"In all bilateral encounters and multilateral meetings, the United States consistently opposes the extension of intergovernmental controls over the Internet," said Philip Verveer, deputy assistant secretary of state and coordinator for IT policy, saying this would lead to "very bad outcomes."

"It inevitably would diminish the dynamism of the Internet," he said. [AFP, 5/31/12]

FCC Commissioner McDowell: "'International Control Of The Internet'" Through The U.N. Treaty Would Be "Devastating." From AFP:

US Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell said the proposals represent threats to the Internet.

"For many years now, scores of countries led by China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and many others, have pushed for, as then-Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said almost a year ago, 'international control of the Internet' through the ITU," he told the panel.

"Such a scenario would be devastating to global economic activity, but it would hurt the developing world the most." [AFP, 5/31/12]

ABOUT OUR RESEARCH

Our research section features in-depth media analysis, original reports illustrating skewed or inadequate coverage of important issues, thorough debunking of conservative falsehoods that find their way into coverage and other special projects from Media Matters' research department.